We are in a crisis in the evolution of human society. It’s unique to both human and geologic history. It has never happened before and it can’t possibly happen again. Albert Bates, author of The Financial Collapse Survival Guide and Cookbook, brings you along on his personal journey.

Sunday, December 6, 2009

My COP15 Journal: Day Two

Day Two. After muesli and yogurt, we took the morning train with Ross Jackson to Klimabundmode, just off Pusherstrasse in Christiania. Klimabundmode is dansk for “Climate Bottom Meeting” (as opposed to the top-down meeting which will be happening across town beginning Monday). Our program is called “Windows of Hope” and began with a ceremony out around the fire that was kindled at sunrise by a Bolivian shaman. There are 50 or 60 hardy souls who gathered with us for the circle, a small number perhaps, but it represented nearly that many countries and peoples — Laplanders, Hungarians, Nepalese, Venezuelans, Aussies; scores more. Medicine Story, a familiar Wampanoag who used to live at The Farm, gave a sweet invocation and then we shifted to the Big Top for the first day’s circus.

After spending time in the streets and subways of Copenhagen we couldn’t help but notice how most folks’ favorite color is black. Its New York or Chicago without the ear-buds. Something about the cold and city living brings out black, we guess. That’s why it was refreshing to be back in Christiania where the colors are bleach resistant and the indigenous peoples add panache.

The two-story pellet stove for the tent was still under construction, so we huddled together and stamped our feet and cupped our hands behind steamy breath as we listened to Marti Mueller recount the road from Rio trough Kyoto and Bali to this place, and then watched various national delegates and chargé d’affairs parade to the solar and pedal-powered podium to deliver prognosis and benefactions.

The official delegate from Greenland, Tove Sovndahl Pedersen, said that the warming of the climate represents both challenges and opportunities. For them, hydropower, agriculture and forestry are improving. Greenland potatoes are more flavorful and disease resistant. Mineral resources are more exposed and Greenland has lots of valuable ones, especially well suited for high technology.

Sure, as sea ice melts, coastal flooding and loss of hunting areas of marine mammals and halibut are problems of survival for indigenous rural settlements. But new sea routes will open from North America and Europe to Asia, and shipping routes could be greatly reduced. While commerce may improve, it is a concern to Greenlanders because all of that new oil and toxic materials will be carried through their treacherous and vulnerable coastal waters. She wrapped up by paying homage to the God of status quo: Greenlanders know from their own eyes that weather is changing and also becoming more unstable, but we need a COP-15 agreement that allows us economic progress, and allows us to make improvements in food, and health and education of our poor. All the time she is saying this we are thinking, it is so easy to spot the elected officials here.

Ross Jackson delivered a prescriptive talk, asking, what is an ideal climate treaty? He said it would have three essential elements.

It must be a guarantee that we will hit the target;

It must be effective; and

It must be equitable.

The Kyoto process fails on all three of these criteria, he said.

Three proposals have been put forward by NGOs that do meet these criteria: Earth Atmospheric Trust, Kyoto 2, and (Jackson’s own) Carbon Board. There are some common threads that characterize these solutions.

A declining cap — a CO2 limit that goes down every year;

A tight mechanism to fairly auction the rights to pollute;

Those who pollute less should be allowed to prevail, financially, over those who pollute more; and

Part of the revenues generated (1-4 trillion dollars/yr by some estimates) must work towards convergence, but be distributed to individuals rather than heads of state. Jackson called this cap and trade and share. He also noted some part will be needed to fund environmental litigation (read: enforcement). Amen.

Sadly, he said, we have a broken system today. The political establishment has the same approach to debt reduction, financial crisis, and WTO negotiations as they do to climate: talk, delay, declarations of success, and then failure to follow through with commitments.

The need, he said, is for a super-national organization. Economic growth is always trotted out to defend political interests, but truth is, economic growth has become uneconomical. We are destroying the global ecosystem with over-consumption, so what economy exists without that? The important business of saving the world has to be taken out of the hands of governments and politicians that compete with each other. National sovereignty has to be sacrificed if we are to survive, he opined.

Tough sell, we thought. Wonder how many delegates at the COP venue will sign on for that.

Over tea in a Christiania coffee shop, Auroville’s pragmatic dreamer, Luigi Zanzi, said we are going through a difficult passage at this time, but it is exactly that difficulty that gives him hope. Of course, moving to a new level of consciousness will not be smooth and easy, he acknowledged. The passage between death and life, and life and death are difficult, but we do them. The passage from matter to mind was even more difficult. And here we are, imperfect human, searching for perfection in a totally integral way, and will that not be difficult?

He says: “This gives me not only hope, but certainty that we are at the job of evolution, and Mother Nature knows very well where she is taking us, through the apparent contradictions, and fear.” We have been used to building our world by external manipulations for centuries, but now we must build a subjective civilization, and that requires inner transformation as a prerequisite to environmental transformation.

Ooops, we thought. Here we go again.

Marti Mueller, across the table, piled on with Luigi, “Fear is one of the reasons we are in the crisis today. Lets throw that out the window and act out of courage. Lets save as many of our co-species as possible. We need to reach a change of consciousness. Andre Malroux said, ‘If the 21st Century is not a spiritual one, we will not survive.’”

Finally we’d had enough, the tea was finished, and we decided to burn some bridges. “Asking for perfect enlightenment of humanity as a prerequisite to rescuing us from climate change seems a pretty high bar,” we blurted. “Why not just settle for getting the dirt right? People have to eat, right? So lets just start there, and if we get the dirt right, the climate will follow.”

No comments:

Friends

Dis-complainer

The Great Change is published whenever the spirit moves me. Writings on this site are purely the opinion of Albert Bates and are subject to a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share-Alike 3.0 "unported" copyright. People are free to share (i.e, to copy, distribute and transmit this work) and to build upon and adapt this work – under the following conditions of attribution, n on-commercial use, and share alike: Attribution (BY): You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work). Non-Commercial (NC): You may not use this work for commercial purposes. Share Alike (SA): If you alter, transform, or build upon this work, you may distribute the resulting work only under the same or similar license to this one. Nothing in this license is intended to reduce, limit, or restrict any rights arising from fair use or other limitations on the exclusive rights of the copyright owner under copyright law or other applicable laws. Therefore, the content ofthis publication may be quoted or cited as per fair use rights. Any of the conditions of this license can be waived if you get permission from the copyright holder (i.e., the Author). Where the work or any of its elements is in the public domain under applicable law, that status is in no way affected by the license. For the complete Creative Commons legal code affecting this publication, see here. Writings on this site do not constitute legal or financial advice, and do not reflect the views of any other firm, employer, or organization. Information on this site is not classified and is not otherwise subject to confidentiality or non-disclosure.

Albert Bates, author of The Post Petroleum Survival Guide and Cookbook, brings you along on his personal journey.

Translate

Search This Blog

Follow by Email

Donating = Loving

The Great Change remains ad-free and takes hundreds of hours a month to research and write and thousands of dollars to sustain. If you find joy and value in these humble posts, please consider becoming a supporter with a recurring monthly donation of your choosing, valued between a cup of tea and a good dinner:

Donation Options

You can also become a one-time patron with a single donation in any amount:

Essential Tools -- and on Special Today!

What We Are Reading

The Biochar SolutionPost-Petroleum Survival GuideClimate in CrisisBuilding Bamboo Fences1491: New RevelationsA Nation of FarmersA Pattern LanguageBamboo: The Gift of the GodsBeyond Zero PointThe Biochar DebateThe Birth of the Gods and the Origins of AgricultureThe Coming Economic CollapseBiochar for Environmental ManagementClaude Levi-Strauss and the Making of Structural AnthropologyConsider the LobsterDepletion and AbundanceDirt! The Ecstatic Skin of the EarthDirt: The Erosion of CivilizationsPlows, Plagues, and PetroleumEarthuser's Guide to PermacultureEcovillagesEmpire of DebtFair Game: My Life as a SpyFermenting RevolutionThe Singularity Is NearThe Starfish and the SpiderFinding CommunityHollyhock CooksDesign for Human EcosystemsDesigning and Maintaining Your Edible Landscape NaturallyHow to Be IdleOn Gandhi’s PathOur ChoiceOur Final Hour: A Scientist's WarningPlows, Plagues, and PetroleumThe Upside of DownThe Vanishing Face of GaiaThe World Without UsSolartopia!Soil Carbon Sequestration and the Greenhouse EffectSorry, Out of GasState of the World 2010Storms of My GrandchildrenThe Empathic CivilizationThe Long EmergencyTwilight in the DesertWhen the Rivers Run DryWhere's My Jetpack?Reinventing CollapseA World Made By HandThe Transition HandbookGaia's GardenHow to Be IdleThe Hand-Sculpted HouseSix DegreesMy IshmaelA Presidential Energy PlanAfter the Ice: A Global Human History 20,000-5000 BCThe Road1491: America Before ColumbusThe Eternal FrontierCollapseTough Little BeautiesPeak EverythingThe Shock DoctrineProfit from the PeakThis Is Not an AssaultCrossing the RubiconWith Speed and ViolenceThe Shell GameFair Game: My Life as a SpyThe Last Oil ShockHeat!Bobos in ParadiseHalf GonePalestine: Peace Not ApartheidThe Tipping PointMycelium RunningFinal EmpireSpiral DynamicsBoomeritisZen Mind Beginners Mind